I have been teaching full-time at Montgomery College since 1986. I earned my PhD. in sociolinguistics at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. My M.S. from Georgetown is in applied linguistics, and my M.A. from Kent State University is in literature and cultural anthroplogy.

In 1977-78 asa Fulbright Lecturer, I taught at the University of Ljubljana in what is now Slovenia but was then part of Yugoslavia. I have lived in France, Laos, Zaire, and Zambia and have traveled in Australia, Africa, Europe, and the U.S. My travels resulted in my lifelong interest in cross-cultural communication and in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages.